On the evening of Friday the 19th of February, hundreds of teachers flocked to the COVID vaccination hub at Epsom Downs after a fake message circulated urging teachers to skip the queue and get vaccinated early. This caused a surge in traffic around the local village of Langley Vale, to which many residents expressed their frustration on Facebook.
A teacher from a secondary school in Hillingdon received the false message via a WhatsApp message from a friend who had been forwarded the message by another friend. The original message had been shared by a headteacher in a local school, urging staff to visit the vaccination centre to receive their jabs from the surplus vaccine. The 37-year-old, who has chosen to remain anonymous, said her initial reaction was to question the ethics of just giving away surplus vaccine due to the priority groups system. She then decided to forward to message to her fellow teachers, as she thought they should take advantage of the opportunity. She also expressed her anger at teachers not being made more of a priority to receive their vaccinations, as many are being expected to go back to work in schools without being vaccinated against the virus.
However, after seeing the outrage on Facebook at the traffic stretching through the Langley Vale area, which according to police was caused by the teachers rushing to the vaccination centre, it became clear that the message may not have been a genuine call to action.
The CSH Surrey issued a statement on Twitter saying:
"IN ERROR a message has been circulated by a third party about the surplus vaccine at Epsom Racecourse vaccination centre. This is not the case and please do not attend the site unless you have an appointment booked via the national system"
More than 20 million first doses of the vaccine have been issued to the highest priority groups across the country, however, after the announcement earlier this week that all pupils and teachers would return to school on the 8th of March, the question remains as to whether teachers should be higher up in the priority groups. If the opportunity had been offered legitimately, the interviewee said that before the announcement she would have been hesitant to take the vaccine ahead of others, but since the announcement, she feels concerned for the safety of teachers returning to work without vaccination, and would definitely take the opportunity if offered.
Many teachers feel that they deserve to be prioritised in receiving the vaccination, as although they are not as exposed to the virus as frontline healthcare workers, they are still working closely alongside thousands of young people, the so-called "super-spreaders" of the virus. Teachers are not equipped with substantial PPE, and social distancing is extremely difficult in schools and colleges with over 1000 children in school every day, so the images shared in the media which represent schools as being COVID safe are not accurate.
